Ditto steephie.

Depending on the prisoner that could be either good or really, really bad.

I'd rather reverse it so that they spend hundreds of years locked away, but don't feel "tortured" because it is more like a day. Then as science progresses, perhaps we can find a way to "fix" whatever makes them want to commit crimes to begin with.

And miss all the shitty food and ass raping?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697/

So basically, Draug, you want to kill every prisoner, since, you know, people die after like 80 years, but you want it to happen quickly for them and waste all of our money continually supplementing them with a drug until they just don't wake again.

Where did Draug say he wants them to die? since the entire premise of the discussion is based upon technology that doesn't exist, I am supposing Draug is talking about putting them in a state of suspended animation. Sheesh...

What the hell are you talking about. I'm talking *real* time dilation. Not some imitator. So that an actual 8 hours passed inside the bubble, not making them feel like 1000 years passed in 8 hours. Time and again it has been shown that incarceration doesn't promote reform. But if we could do real time dilation by slowing down what happens inside the prison cells so that only a few hours pass while outside hundreds of years do (or even millennia), then we could look for ways to actually reform them through science.

Hell, if cryogenics were truly a safe reality, I'd say they should get the option to be suspended until we can find a "cure" for whatever ails them.

Oooooooh, gotcha.

Mah bad.

So committing crimes is people's ticket to travelling to the future? Brilliant!

If they go through the process and believe they've experienced a 100 year spell in jail, but then go through that new trauma treatment in which they make you forget the traumatic incident (which in this case is the jail memories) would that be a punishment or not?

Awesome, we definitely want to put reality manipulation in the hands of the state. There is nothing that could go wrong.

semck83: Definitely not in these guys' hands. . . .

@JECE,

I don't understand what you mean.

@all,

This actually reminds me of the Philip K Dick novel, "'Flow My Tears,' the Policeman Said." I'd recommend it.

We don't want to put reality manipulation in the hands of several of those who have posted thus far.

@JECE,

Oh! I couldn't agree more.

"What the hell are you talking about. I'm talking *real* time dilation. Not some imitator. So that an actual 8 hours passed inside the bubble, ..."

Or, you know, we could actually TRY to reform prisoner's in prison, instead of just warehousing them. You coudl actually require completion of counseling programs, and use more home incarceration (tethering) instead of warehousing, etc. and, you know, we could actually put work programs in place so that released prisoners had jobs and a livelihood when they are released so that they didn't have to turn back to crime to put food in their mouths. Just saying...

JECE - worse still, woudl you want reality manipulation in the hands of *any* government official, ever, anywhere??

I think you're discussing the plot of "demolition man"

A classic film, to be sure

@Sic - Yeah, that was pretty much the thought except DM didn't try to "cure" or reform them, just cold storage them forever because they didn't believe in capital punishment and thought life was cruel and unusual punishment (plus a risk).

I don't get this. Perhaps the only good argument in favor of the current prison system is that it keeps violent people away from normal society. (Deterrence doesn't work and rehabilitation's track record is even worse.) This wouldn't keep violent people away from normal society. In fact, I think it's be likely to drive them insane and make them MORE liable to be a danger to people, not less.

And although it's probably unstoppable, are we really comfortable giving the state such a strong method of torture? The human brain is not built to function for a thousand years. I can already see this being used on "unruly" prisoners who were locked up for nonviolent crimes, or on "enemy combatants" who didn't do anything at all. This makes waterboarding look like child's play. I'm not at all in support.

^ I don't think anyone is in support.....I hope.... (come out of the shadows you evil bastards)

If you've seen Demolition Man you'll understand why this is a terribly awesome idea.

Shit. How did Sicarius beat me to that joke? He only logs on once every 6 months.

@abge -- Sicarius didn't beat you to the joke. I beat both of you...6th reply - imdb link.

" Perhaps the only good argument in favor of the current prison system is that it keeps violent people away from normal society."

TOTALLY false. An extremely small percentage of inmates are "life without parole", and since there is both a continuous stream of prisoners entering the system, there is also a continuous stream of prisoners coming back into society. While warehoused, with NO treatment, they often become more prone to violence, they become more disconnected and unskilled to fit into society, and thus more dangerous to the society they **WILL** be release back into.

Yes, as an "individual" they are kept from society for a time....and then returned to it. As a "system", given the one-in/one-out on a cyclical basis, the prison system in ejecting more violent, more hardened, less socially acceptable humans at the same rate as they bring them in (more or less) -- thus, the current warehousing systems in fact does more harm to society overall than it does good.

I'll have to agree with you krellin (choke).

Look at Sweden. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/01/why-sweden-closing-prisons
Sweden is actually closing prisons. "One strong reason for the drop in prison numbers might be the amount of post-prison support available in Sweden. "
"The overall reoffending rate in Sweden stands at between 30 and 40% over three years – around half that in the UK. "

Or Norway. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1384308/Norways-controversial-cushy-prison-experiment--catch-UK.html. Bastoy, at just 16 per cent, has the lowest reoffending rate in Europe. Granted, societal conditions are different too, but that's still a lot if difference.

Meanwhile, in Canada, the conservative government has been closing down all of the rehabilitation programs for prisoners...it's all about punishment.

A horrifying possibility. Anyone who has read about how interrogations work realizes that something like this could be used to break anybody, absolutely destroy them, within 30 minutes.

Although I hope this leads to an awesome supervillain when some comic creator reads this.

Man convicted of Murder is the first to receive this punishment, a lifetime in prison started off by 8 hours/500 years in solitary. He comes out of the 8 hours having mastered his own brain, escapes custody and starts seeking revenge on society as the Penticentenial.

maybe Methuselah is a better name

wtf I thought Sicarius was long gone?